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President Irfaan Ali last Saturday disclosed “Guyana is still the fifth fastest growing economy in the world without taking the impact of the oil and gas economy into consideration, as the country’s non-oil sectors have seen robust growth over the past year.”
“Without oil, our economic growth would still run fifth in the world as the fastest growing economy in the world in 2020,” President Ali said during a live update on his Facebook page.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected Guyana’s 2022 growth of 58.7 per cent. Guyana’s non-oil economy was projected to grow by 9.5 per cent in 2022 according to the Finance Ministry‘s half-year report.
“Guyana’s economic performance in 2022 was not only remarkable, but it is one that is worth a study,” President Ali noted.
Whilst Ali seeks to credit growth to the PPP/C Government’s programmes and policies, and investments in the non-oil sectors over the past two years, he has ignored the World Bank Report that half the population is living in poverty in spite of Guyana’s extraordinary economic growth.
The World Bank reported (October 2022) that half of households (49 percent) are experiencing lower total household income compared to the period before the pandemic, and 48 per cent of the population are living below US$5.5 a day, which is among the highest in the Latin America and Caribbean region.
Cost of living for essential items has doubled and tripled over the last year when compared with 2021.
Inspite of the damning statistics the President said is “also important when you look at what people call Dutch disease…The diversification of our economic portfolio is holding strong,” President Ali pointed out.
The Government said Guyana’s inflation for 2022 was around 7 per cent, which is below the global inflation rate according to the IMF. According to an IMF’s report on its website Guyana’s 2022 inflation rate was projected as 9.4 per cent.
In 2022 there were 13 lifts of profit oil this year with over US$1 billion in revenue and US$150 million in royalty.
